内容摘要：The assembly motion had been brought forward by then Ulster Unionist MLA Danny Kennedy.

The assembly motion had been brought forward by then Ulster Unionist MLA Danny Kennedy.

earlier this month for attempted murder after repeatedly stabbing Sir Salman on a New York lecture stage."I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and I hope he uses it to reflect upon his deeds," Sir Salman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The attack left the award-winning writer blind in one eye, with damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm.Last year, Sir Salman published a book titled Knife reflcting on the attack, which he has described as "my way of fighting back".It includes an imagined conversation with Matar. "I thought if I was to really meet him, to ask him questions, I wouldn't get very much out of him," Sir Salman told Radio 4.

"I doubt that he would open his heart to me. And so I thought, well, I could open it by myself. I'd probably do it better than a real conversation would."The fictional conversation was brought to life by BBC film-maker Alan Yentob in an artificial intelligence animation created for a documentary last year.

The results were "very startling", Sir Salman said on Monday. "I have to say it certainly made a point."

The author was speaking on Radio 4 to pay tribute to Yentob, the BBC's former creative director, who died on Saturday.It will take years for Europe's military industrial base to crank up to speed to match anywhere near the scale of weaponry that Russia is churning out.

The US has also been drawing down, not building up, its defence commitments to Europe to focus on the Indo-Pacific.An al-Qaeda linked group says it carried out a major attack on the Malian town of Boulikessi, and seized control of an army base.

More than 30 soldiers were killed in Sunday's attack, according to sources quoted by the Reuters news agency, however that figure has not been confirmed by the authorities.On Monday the same group, Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), says it targeted the military in the historic city of Timbuktu.